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Welp. I failed again. I haven’t blogged in almost a month. Maybe that’s the kinda blogger I am, a onceamonther.

Onceamonther? Yes? Okay.

Anyways, if you couldn’t guess from the title this post is about some of my favorite Whole30 recipes! And in case you missed it, I started Whole30 August 1st and the finish line is just around the corner, as in tomorrow I can start the reintroduction phase! I am so excited and sad at the same time. I shall update you more on the whole experience when it’s all said and done but for now let me share some of my favorite recipes so you can be inspired to try Whole30 soon, maybe even in September!

Let’s start with my tips (I’m just going to give you my top 5, the list could go on).

Uno: Try new creative recipes every week! At least one a week. Whenever I challenge myself to cleanses or resets or whatever you want to call them, I always make it a point to try new recipes and it’s helped me a ton. Sometimes you can get stuck in a rut of eating your same sweet potatoes and chicken for dinner every night and if you do your Whole30 experience will not be as awesome as it could be. So try new recipes. Where do I find new recipes? Most, dare I say all, paleo books or blogs will have tons of recipes for you to try. But you know what else is awesome? Raw/Vegan books and blogs! Great for awesome veggie recipes to compliment your meats! Pinterest is also great (do I even need to include a link for that?) The Whole30 Instagram, and Whole30recipes Instagram, Whole30 website, and Whole9life website are all great resources. When all else fails there’s always the beloved google too! You can also channel your inner chef and create your own recipes. It’s really not that complicated, or shouldn’t be that complicated, to make delicious Whole30 meals.

Dos: Don’t make things complicated for yourself! I know I know, I just said try new recipes and I meant it but not every meal needs to be roasted duck that you drove two hours to find because it had to be organically raised. Use leftovers, use frozen veggies, be okay with simple grilled chicken and salad. And this goes for other things in your life too! Don’t try to run and train for your first marathon in 30 days. Don’t try to plan a wedding in these 30 days. Don’t try to solve world hunger during this time.

Tres: Did I just say use leftovers? This deserves to be its own tip!! Make extra food to have leftovers and use those leftovers to your advantage! This saved my life, especially for lunch! SAVED MY LIFE. So make leftovers and use them. And if you hate leftovers, then get off your high horse and learn to love them. This will help you a ton, I promise.

Cuatro: Use spices. Spices have long been my friend since I decided to cut out all of those pre-packaged garbage spices from my life. But if you haven’t crossed that line before your Whole30 you will want to start now. Use your spices.

Cinco: Preparation is key. Try to have some vague idea of what you will eat for the week. Or if you’re like me, make a list of what you want to try to eat that week. If you cannot plan that far ahead, at least try to determine what you will eat one day in advance. Try pre-cutting your veggies for easy salads and sides. Try to take one day to prep what you can and this will help you a lot. I promise.

Alright, on to the recipes!

Accidental cauliflower soup. This is accidental because I meant to make a cauliflower sauce and failed.

Saute your garlic in your coconut oil (make sure your significant other is around to enjoy the aroma) until the garlic is cooked to your liking, the longer the better, but not brown okay? Add 1 cup of your water and your cauliflower and bring water to a boil. Once it’s boiling reduce to a simmer, cover with a lid, and cook until your cauliflower is soft, very soft. Now, you have two options here: 1) transfer all the goods from your pan or pot into a blender and blend, adding more chicken broth or water until it reaches the desired consistency or 2) use your handy stick blender (which everyone should have) to blend all the goods in a pot or bowl, adding more chicken broth and water until it reaches the desired consistency. It’s all about the consistency and what you happen to have on hand. You may need to continue simmering your soup once it’s all blended, just to make sure it’s warm and this would be a the right time to add in your spices. If you’re soup is ready to go after you’ve blended it, just add your spices to it. Alternatively, you could add your spices before you blend it! It really don’t matter. I mixed in some leftover shredded chicken. OH MY WORD! You want the recipe for the chicken I made? Yeah, sure you do!

Crispy Roasted Chicken. The key for this recipe is the cast iron skillet, I think. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet I suggest you stop reading this and go get one. Seriously. This recipe is also super adaptable and you can add any spices you like. My 3-year-old sister could not get enough of this chicken when I made it and came over two days later asking if she could have some. I mean, that’s how good it is. Oh and if you haven’t jumped on the cooking the whole chicken train yet, you need to. It’s my favorite way of cooking chicken because I don’t feel like I’m producing as much waste, it yields so much chicken for tons of leftovers, and I make my own chicken broth after. Winning. Pair this with anything you like! Salad is my go to!

Mexican ground beef with guacamole and plantains.

If this recipe seems good to be true because of its simplicity it’s because it is too good to be true. Don’t ask me why but this recipe turned out to be one of my husbands favorite recipes. And it will take you like no time at all.

1/2 a pound of ground beef

1/2 green pepper or more

1/2 red pepper or more

1/2 large red onion or white but red onions really are the diamonds of onions aren’t they?

3 (or more) cloves garlic

salt/pepper

1 large extremely ripe (brown/black) plantain

coconut oil

avocado

salsa

Side note: can it really be that easy? Yes, yes, it can be.

Dice your peppers and onions and mince your garlic. Start cooking your ground beef, we used a cast iron skillet which I think is a significant part of why this recipe is so good, and add some salt and pepper. Once your meat is mostly cooked add your diced pepper and onions and minced garlic. Now’s the perfect time to cook your plantains. Heat your coconut oil in a pan over medium high heat, slice your plantains about 1/4 inch thick and drop in the pan, be careful for oil splashing. Fry on both sides about 3 mins or longer if you like. Now, you can buy the pre-made guac which is fine, you can go all out and make some with cilantro, lime, fresh tomato, etc or you can do what I did this time and mix avocado and salsa which took all of a few minutes. And boom! You’re done! Not everything has to be complicated! I served mine over a bed of salad!

Chicken Nuggets. These were delicious but there are lots of other recipes out there. We paired these with homemade ketchup and mayo. Homemade sweet potato fries and stir fry veggies. You need the recipes for these now don’t you!?

Oil free stir fry veggies.Does the thought of making stir fry veggies without oil scare you? Not me and after you try these you won’t miss the oil. But I will say the key to this was my green pan and some water. You could probably get away with a normal pan and a lot of water/chicken broth/vegetable broth but it may not be the same.

Broccoli

Red pepper

Green Pepper

Onion

Whatever spices you like!

Fry those babies up to your liking. You could use any veggies but the broccoli is a must cause it’s so good. Add water as needed to keep frying them.

If you’re like me you have long since given up on finding a suitable mayo in the outside world. All of them are made with inflammatory oils, like canola and soy, and with nasty poison eggs! Gross. For over two years the only times we had mayo in the house were when we really really wanted it which was like 3 times. Literally. We’re human you know so we caved sometimes but my husband can vouch that I was no happy camper when buying normal mayo, like at all. But, the thought of making my own just weirded me out given the whole raw egg thing which is totally strange because as a kid I grew up eating brownie mix with raw egg all the time! So thankful I got over my phobia and made my own mayo because I will never buy store-bought mayo ever again!

We obviously ate more delicious recipes than that but these are some of our favorites. There is nothing like a good salad with lots of chopped veggies or a baked sweet potato or cucumber with guac (yes, cucumber) but these really don’t their own recipe do they?

There you have it folks! I’ll be sharing more on Whole30 in the days to come including some of my favorite staples to have in your house during Whole30 and some awesome approved Whole30 products!

Thanks for reading!

Kristina

Oh and if you’ve completed a Whole30 and have some of your favorite recipes to share then please do so in the comments below! Me and my handful of readers would sure love it.